Favorite Frank Herbert Books?

[Swank]

It has always been my impression that the Dune series is three stories - the first three books, a kind of philosophic intermezzo in God Emperor, and then a return world of complex action and intrigue of the first book with Heretics/Chapterhouse. Herbert wrote Messiah with Dune and it was supposed to be the fourth section of Dune after Dune, Mua'dib and The Prophet. The publisher wanted to keep the book to a reasonable length, and so Dune has a triumphant ending, rather than the death of Chani. Dune would probably be viewed a lot differently if Messiah was part of it. I don't think Heretics gets enough credit for the incredible world re-building it offers.

My other three favorites are Dosadi, Destination Void and Dragon/Pressure. They are each more personal stories of heroes thrown into extremis. The underlying humor of Busab, the embodiment of creation in Void and the hard boiled thriller of Dragon make them all page turners.

If Herbert only wrote Destination Void, I think we would focus on the brilliance of that work like we do with Bester, Maddox's Halo or Steakley's Armor. But it has too much competition to stand out.

 

[wazz]

Have read all the Dune books at least 2 but I think probably 3 times now. He's a little bit uneven and I have plenty of criticism for him, but obviously, a huge amount of love too.

Hellstroms Hive was brutally meh. Heavy-handed political handwaving, not particularly compelling characters, felt kinda trashy tbh.

I was very impressed by The Dragon in the Sea, though. Fluid (pardon the pun) style, huge amount of tension and mystery, played at high stakes and low depth, satisfying conclusion, and he seems to have been quite ahead in the curve in that a lot of sub adventure stories had elements I could see in this, the earliest examples of those elements I know of at least.